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The development scene in the Arts District has been red hot for years, but now it is reaching an unprecedented level: Irvine-based developer Suncal has released details for its roughly $2 billion mega-project Sixth & Alameda. If it comes to fruition, it would be the largest, most diverse and most ambitious development ever to hit the community.

Earlier this year, SunCal tapped Pritzker Prize-winning Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron to create the vision for the 15-acre site on the southeast corner of Sixth and Alameda streets.

The existing patchwork of produce warehouses and other buildings would be demolished to make way for a series of roughly seven-story concrete-and-steel buildings, arranged in long north-south rows. Two 58-floor towers would rise along Alameda Street.

“Unlike many of our peers, who are essentially proposing suburban residential building designs for the Arts District, we are very explicitly trying to understand the genetics of the Arts District and give it something for the permanent future,” said Dan Rosenfeld, a land-use consultant for SunCal and a longtime Downtown real estate player. “We’re working in a vocabulary of modern architecture, and we did not want faux versions of bow-truss ceilings and distressed brick.”

The size and scale of the project is staggering. It would have 1.4 million square feet of apartments and 674,000 square feet of condominiums (comprising 1,305 apartments and 431 condos).

There would also be 265,000 square feet each for a hotel and offices, 64,000 square feet of retail, 18,000 square feet for a school, and another 18,000 square feet for “cultural” uses (early ideas include a gallery or museum).

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http://www.6amartsdistrict.com/news-...velopment-yet/